August 31 in LGBTQ History

1979: At the start of the Labor Day weekend at the Sri Ram Ashram near Benson, Arizona, the Spiritual Conference for Radical Fairies was organized as a ʺcall to gay brothersʺ by early gay rights advocates Harry Hay, John Burnside, Don Kilhefner, and Mitch Walker. It becomes the birthplace of The Radical Faeries.

2005: In U.S. v. Blaylock the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit denied an appeal based on the exclusion of a potential juror which the defendant alleged was based on the juror’s sexual orientation. The appeal had sought to extend to sexual orientation the protections of Batson v. Kentucky, which forbids excluding potential jurors based on race.

2007: Kathleen Sebelius, governor of the U.S. state of Kansas, issues an executive order banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the public sector.